Intervju (Engelska)

We're only in it for the beer – An interview with Stian Fossum from DEVIL

When Norwegian doomsters DEVIL visited Berlin in November, I had the honour of sitting down in the cramped backstage room of Prenzlauer Berg's White Trash for a chat with the guys. The interview is mainly with guitarist Stian Fossum, but comments from the rest of the band has been summarized in some parts.

Hello Stian, how are you and how do you like Berlin so far? Is it DEVIL's first time visiting the city?­­­– We love it! We've been talking about it just now actually. It's very much as I expected and I can understand why so many people has this fetish for Berlin, it's a very nice city but we haven't seen the rush traffic yet so that could be worse. I've played here with FAUSTCOVEN once but we only came, played and left so this is the first time I got to see some of the city.

Have you seen some of the sights yet?–Yeah we've seen a piece of the wall and we've seen Brandenburger Tor. We've been actual typical tourists today.

CYSTIC DYSENTERY – putting Jacksonville, Florida, on the map of brutal death

The debut album "Culture of death" from Jacksonville natives CYSTIC DYSENTERY was one the best brutal death metal offerings of last year. Having been around since 2002 and releasing their first demo the year after, they are far from a new band though. I decided to contact guitarrist Ben Davis and find out, amongst other things, why it took almost a decade to get this awesome album out there.

For those that don't have a clue, i.e. don't know your band already, could you briefly introduce yourself and the band?– I'm Ben I play guitar and am one of the founding members of CYSTIC DYSENTERY. We are from Jacksonville, Florida and we play brutal/technical death metal.

Into The Abyss – An Interview with HYPOCRISYs Peter Tägtgren

It was a nice spring evening when I turned up to K17 in Friedrichshain, Berlin to check out HYPOCRISY. I got there early to catch up with workaholic and HYPOCRISY frontman Peter Tägtgren for a little pre-gig chat in the tour bus.

Apart from the tragic incident when bass player Slawomir "Mortifer" Archangielskij from the support band HATE – passed away in his sleep just two days prior to this interview, everything is going forward for HYPOCRISY.

You’re currently on the road in support of your new album ”End Of Disclosure” – which is your 12th studio album. How has the tour been so far?– It's been really good until this shit happened with HATE, you know. Other than that it's been fantastic, one of the best we've done so far.

Have you been informed of what happened with Mortifer?– (Sighs). I don't know if it's something he was born with... his heart just stopped. Not because of drugs or anything like that. I mean he was only 27 years old so... but we'll find out when they know. What can you say? It's insane.

OMNIHILITY – The next generation of blazingly technical brutality

Technical death/grind is not only hard to play. It is also hard to find the right balance between memorable songwriting and hyperfast technical brutality. One new-comer that does this with impressive excellence and clearly inspired by NILE, ORIGIN and other masters of the genre is four-piece OMNIHILITY from Eugene, Oregon, in the US. Their debut album "Biogenesis" was released in September of last year and after buying it recently I was so impressed I got in touch with them to have a talk. Guitarist Dan Rabago was kind enough to answer my questions.

Your first album, "Biogenesis", has been out for some time now. What kind of feedback have you gotten so far?– The reviews on "Biogenesis" have been great! It actually made a list of the top ten albums of 2012! We have been pretty excited about all the positive things people have been saying about it.

This interview was conducted backstage at the Brewhouse music venue in Gothenburg, Sweden, on November 3rd, 2012, before Devins concert which was opened by FEAR FACTORY and Swedish SCAR SYMMETRY. The interview centered around his role as an artist. Among other things Devin actually talked about having to sacrifice things in life to the way he has chosen, a topic he hasn't addressed much in interviews before. Devin also talked about his Swedish connections (with drummer Morgan Ågren and producer Jens Bogren), his new record which is in the making and will be completely different, and his will to stay non-political and beeing an entertainer, for many years to come. He also spoke about the way the music business has evolved and how he has been forced to adapt, his way beeing the over-creative one.